Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi everyone. I have a grammar quesiton which my student asked me several days ago. We use the article 'the' for musical instruments. For example, 'play the guitar'; 'play the piano'; 'play the violin' etc. Is it possible to say 'play guitar'; 'play piano'; 'play violin'. The grammar reference book indicates that we have to use 'the'. However, I tried to type 'play guitar' or 'play piano' on Google and have found that it seems that we can say 'play guitar' or 'play piano'. I am a little confused how to tell my students. Thanks for your answers.

If you want to see twenty different answers and a philosophical discussion on this, you might try the Applied Linguistics Forum just below . I'm not sure if everyone who looks there looks here as well.

(And I've used both of them.)

hi there, just testing the waters, i always teach my students you have to use the before a musical instrument

Ah, then you should read the thread in Applied Linguistics--it's rather extensive now